Playing with Power: A ninja's long journey

“Now you’re playing with power!”

Nintendo’s marketing in the 80s always focused on power. The company’s magazine was named “Nintendo Power.” Some of the company’s television advertising featured lightning bolts and thunder. The Nintendo Entertainment System being a powerful entertainment tool was an idea the Japanese company pushed heavily on its customers.

I bought one of Nintendo’s NES Classic Editions a few months back, thinking back to about how, 27 years ago, I would have to wait until after my mom finished watching “Murder, She Wrote” before I’d get a chance at saving the Mushroom Kingdom. As I make my way through the Classic Edition’s 30-game collection, I’ve had fun reminiscing about games from an era before when even the toaster needs to be connected to Wi-Fi.

Ninja Gaiden

Ninjas were everywhere in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This idea is counter to what ninjas really represented, as being seen is one of the last things a real ninja would want. However, that never stopped men in brightly-colored ninja attire wandering around and beating up bad guys under the cover of high noon in schlocky action movies. At least the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles did their heroics during the night.

“Ninja Gaiden” follows in the tradition of ninjas not concerned about being seen in broad daylight. The game’s ninja, Ryu Hayabusa, finds himself involved in a plot to take over the world after he begins to investigate his father’s murder. Hayabusa battles street gangs, escapes from a hidden CIA holding cell and fights mutated monstrosities as he works to stop an evil cult from acquiring a cursed statue.

The game used very primitive cutscenes between levels to help tell its story, something that was a unique feature for NES games. However, the most memorable aspect of “Ninja Gaiden” is its difficulty.

The game was produced by Tecmo, a Japanese company that had its start making arcade games before shifting gears to the home software market. Like similar companies, many of the tricks Tecmo used in arcade games to syphon quarters from pockets were incorporated into their home game releases. In “Ninja Gaiden,” this meant tricky enemies placed in very dangerous locations. Hayabusa has a life bar and can survive a few his before dying. However, that life bar doesn’t matter in later areas as a single hit can send the ninja into the nearest bottomless pit.

I remember beating this game as a kid, but I’m not sure what’s happened between then and now. Whenever I play it now, it’s mostly frustration and failure.

The game was successful enough have two sequels produced for the NES and was later re-imagined as a 3D action game for Microsoft’s Xbox. That game focused more on supernatural monsters and featured Hayabusa in a more appropriate ninja outfit. As fun as that game was, I always thought it was missing something: a ninja in brightly-colored gear, wandering around and beating up thugs on a bright, sunny day.